86. Tai Amri Poetics: Beautiful Ashe

Tai Amri:
"I started Allies in Action at Naropa while I was there as a student, and also was the editor of Tendril, which was a journal on diversity. And that really came out of my feelings of like, man it’s really hard being black in Boulder, and being black at Naropa was also very difficult. And — and I was getting triggered all the time, and micro-aggressions, which I didn’t have language for at the time - I just like, I’m not gonna be able to graduate from here if I don’t do something to try to change it. And Allies in Action was really like - how do we address unaddressed privilege and oppression in the school environment? And I feel like B.L.A.C.K Lawrence tries to do a lot of that, as well as how do we create space for black creators in a place where there’s not a lot of us.”

Beautiful Ashe: Memoirs of A Sweet Black Boy and Other Poems
Beautiful Ashe: Memoirs of A Sweet Black Boy Tai Amri

In This Episode:
-Influence of Music in Writing
-Black Studies & Black Aesthetics
-Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics
-Black Literature & Arts Collective of Kansas
-Tai Amri Original Spoken Poetry
-Elegba - Trickster God, African Deity
-Obatala - African Deity of Peace & Creativity
-Pantheon of Orishas
-Influential Teachers of Color at Naropa
-Soltahr Tiv-Amanda
Soltahr.com
-Malaika Pettigrew
Remembering Malaika

Tai’s Favorite Jazz Musician:
This Is Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers on Spotify

http://artblakey.com/

More Influence:

Tito Puente
This Is Tito Puente on Spotify

Bob Marley
Legend - The Best of Bob Marley and The Wailers on Spotify

Poetic Influence:
https://soniasanchez.net/
Sonia Sanchez

https://whitmanarchive.org/
Walt Whitman

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/amiri-baraka
Amiri Baraka - Poetry Foundation

Naropa's Office for Inclusive Community

Get To Know Your Host:
Apple: David DeVine: An Intimate Interview and Mindful U Year In Review
Spotify: David DeVine: An Intimate Interview and Mindful U Year In Review

Your Next Noteworthy Listen:
MU 79: Anthony Gallucci: Re-Establishing Masculinity